Carolanna Parlato

Artist Statement 2007

I observe colors in my everyday life, from the plastic toys and dishes piled high in a 99-cent store to the pastels of a late afternoon sky. The intersection of nature and artifice in my painting is manifested through the use of glossy primaries, toxic greens, acid yellows and oranges, as well

as various hues of neutral grays and browns. Material manipulation becomes a visual metaphor

for the natural world: oozing paint dispersions interact with playful squiggles creating a dynamic fusion of lush chromatic effects with sensuous surface modulation. Multiple layers of looped and curled forms pile on top of one another masking color underneath but failing to conceal

submerged shapes. Consistent with my earlier works, abstraction plays with the flow and drip of paint in tension with the landscape genre.

The paintings are built up with an acrylic gel similar to putty or tar. I use many tools including squeeze bottles, modeling tools, knives and brushes. Experimentation with the paint's plasticity

is an important part of the development of my painting. Central to these works is the

somewhat paradoxical relationship between the quasi-chance process of pouring and the

rigor of the control exercised over the process. I am a collaborator with the paint; responding to

its fluidity, its spatters, spillages and kaleidoscopic rivers of bright, gleeful color.

The paintings establish their own particular aesthetic. Rather than abstracting from nature;

there exists a tension between the synthetic plasticity of abstraction and the elemental, biological nature. The works suggest fluid flow, plant root systems, aerial views and other natural phenomena. The resulting playful, organic arrangements mirror our world in which objects of popular culture jut out into nature. By synthesizing the ‘artificial” with the “natural” I hope to mediate these extremes into a 21^st century interpretation of beauty.